The final volume of
Paul Kim’s excellent recordings of the
complete piano music of Olivier Messiaen
concentrates almost entirely on the
earlier works. The Préludes
were written while Messiaen was still
a student at the Paris Conservatoire,
and while there are colours and gestures
from other composers present - Debussy’s
own Préludes being the
most obvious influence - it is fascinating
to hear how instantly recognisable and
well formed the Messiaen musical fingerprints
already were in this period. Each of
the pieces is a meditation on a particular
theme or subject. Some of these have
enigmatic titles like Instants défunts,
and the longest has the wonderful name
Cloches d’angoisse et larmes d’adieu
(Bells of Anguish and Tears of Farewell).
Paul Kim shows his sensitive touch in
this, and the other quieter movements,
balancing the chords to reveal their
melodic importance, as well as those
long stretches of harmonic development,
making the climaxes powerful and expressive.
The opposite to this is arguably the
eighth and final prelude, Un reflet
dans le vent…(A Reflection in the
Wind), whose extrovert pianism Kim compares
to Debussy’s L’isle joyeuse in
the booklet notes, and whose joyous
rising motives sometimes bring Turangalila
to mind.
Les offrandes oubliées,
or ‘The Forgotten Offerings’ arranged
for piano from the original orchestral
version by the composer, is the
only work on this disc with an overtly
religious theme, and is recognised as
being one of Messiaen’s most significant
early pieces. A reverential, plainchant-like
opening gives way to that famously savage
central section in which Messiaen really
plays the piano as an orchestra, hitting
as hard as anything by Stravinsky. Paul
Kim’s sense of eternal timelessness
is very beautiful in this piece, and
holds nothing back where the tumult
of rage expresses fury and fear.
Messiaen resisted the
extensive influences of jazz and popular
styles prevalent in Paris in the 1930s,
and his Fantasie burlesque often
comes across more than a little anachronistically,
placing ragtime rhythms and stride piano
technique within the recognisable, serious
Messiaen idiom. Kim shows himself well
up to the challenge of the occasional
shimmy, and with contrast and colour
still central aspects of the writing,
manages to give the work all of the
French surrealist character it demands.
Pièce pour
le tombeau de Paul Dukas as the
title suggests, was written as part
of a response by a number of composers
to the loss of their mentor and colleague.
In the resulting collection, published
in the journal Revue Musicale in
1936, most of the works are tenderly
graceful tributes, but as more than
one commentator has pointed out, Messiaen’s
honest feelings were of more of rage
against the transient nature of existence,
making this piece stand out from the
crowd. Kim’s performance is tough and
uncompromising, well expressing those
feelings of frustration and fury. Placing
the lighter Rondeau directly
afterwards is good programming. This
was a piece written as a test piece
for a piano competition, and is full
of exuberant trills and scherzo-like
character. On the strength of this recording
I think Mr. Kim would probably have
won the prize.
A fascinating newcomer
is the Prélude of 1964,
which was only discovered in 2000 and
subsequently edited for posthumous publication
by Messiaen’s widow, Yvonne Loriod.
The piece has a simple structure, and
some surprisingly and strikingly simple
diatonic/homophonic chords in the opening
– one to play for knowledgeable friends,
who might well be thrown for longer
than usual. In a strange way the piece
is like a musical letter left behind
for all us fans, and as such you may
find yourself ‘reading’ it very many
times – I know I have. Kim’s playing
and interpretation is as heroically
affecting as the music, and is a fitting
conclusion to this glorious set.
As with all of the
releases in this series, Paul Kim’s
own booklet notes are highly informative
and written with great clarity. He opens
the notes for this issue with a personal
response to Messiaen’s music, and his
feelings on having completed the task
of a recording of the entire works for
piano. We are also given a glimpse into
how his involvement with such monumental
efforts affected his family, and I for
one would gladly allow him the space
to show gratitude to those who had to
put up with the great tracts of time
put into preparing such recordings.
Paul Kim’s volumes of Messiaen are something
quite special, and deserve as wide an
audience as anything available today.
Dominy Clements
Volume
1
Volume
2
Volume
3
Volume
4
for
details
Paul Kim (piano) 
